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OPINION
AEC careers are built on continual learning, where mistakes, questions, and collaboration shape lasting skills and professional growth. A lifetime of mistakes – and what I learned
E ngineering is a career built on continual learning. No one makes it far without asking questions, making mistakes, and collaborating with others. Every seasoned engineer has a list of hard-earned lessons – moments where a small misstep led to a major insight. Over time, these experiences shape not only our technical skills but also our mindset. Engineering is a career built on continual learning, and no one makes it far without asking questions, making mistakes, and collaborating with others.
Jon Hanlon, PE, AMPP
Inspired by Kevin Norgaard’s piece for The Zweig Letter on communication barriers, I’d like to share some of my own lessons learned. These missteps weren’t career-ending – they were career-defining: 1. Don’t let fear of perception hold you back. I first started off my career designing surgical tools. As a young mechanical engineer I had the fortune to design and develop new innovative equipment that advanced the technology for small bone surgery. I then switched gears and began working in the marine industry, where we designed and produced remote underwater equipment including robotic manipulators and unmanned remote underwater vehicles. One of our assignments was to develop a remote vehicle that was coupled to the Russian Mir deepwater submersible. This equipment was featured in the movie The Titanic and our ROV made 17 dives on the Titanic for the movie. Our company also developed the dive helmets that were used
in the movie The Abyss . I then began working for a company that designed and produced specialized video cameras that were used to record and study plan roots below the ground surface. Each of these jobs was heavily focused on research and development, and required me to develop the confidence to proceed into areas that were unfamiliar to me. When I became a consulting engineer in the water/wastewater space, I had zero prior experience. However, my amazing previous jobs prepared me for one of the most important skills of a good engineer: Being able to “figure it out”, even if I had never done it before. Although, I quickly realized I had a lot to learn, I had the confidence that I could figure it out.
See JON HANLON, page 8
THE ZWEIG LETTER OCTOBER 20, 2025, ISSUE 1606
ELEVATE THE INDUSTRY®
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